When the first Labor Day parade took place Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, Butler County industry was barely 12 years old.
The nation was grappling with the Industrial Revolution, as agriculture gave way to manufacturing and the need for laws to keep America’s workforce safe became apparent.
It was the railroad that brought industrial development to Butler County, according to a Missouri Committee for the Humanities project undertaken locally by Mary Collins.
Saw mills and factories sprang up quickly in 1872, with the completion of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in Poplar Bluff.
Timber became a commodity with the new ability to transport the trees found on the upper Black River, leading to the addition of timber-related businesses.
The largest of these were the Poplar Bluff Lumber and Manufacturing Company, R.P. Liles Company, H.D. Williams Cooperage Company, Brooklyn Cooperage Company, Keystone Lumber and Land Company, J.N. Roberts Veneering Factory and the Hargrove-Ruth Lumber Mill.
A thriving steamboat industry also came to the Black River with the timber boom, helping get the cut trees rafted downstream, Collins wrote.
Poplar Bluff had 57 manufacturing plants by the end of 1907, which employed 1,387 men, with annual payrolls of nearly $600,000, according to Collins’ research.
Today, health care and education are among the largest employers in Poplar Bluff.
Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, John J. Pershing VA Medical Center and FCC Behavioral Health employ more than 2,500 people, according to the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce.
PBRMC and the VA are the county’s top two employers.
Another 1,200 people work at Poplar Bluff R-I schools, the third largest employer, and Three Rivers College combined.
Brigg & Stratton, Mid-Continent Steel and Wire and Gates Corporation provide nearly 1,600 jobs combined. Briggs is the county’s fourth largest employer.
The 200-acre Poplar Bluff Industrial Park is home to Briggs & Stratton (internal combustion engines); Gates Rubber Co. (radiator hoses); Mid-Continent Nail (nail mfg.); Nortek, Inc. (heating & air conditioning units); Ozark Foothills Solid Waste Management District (Recycling Center); Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission; Titan Plastics (plastic injection molding); and Starting USA (recoil starters).
The Chamber has also begun work on a expansion to the industrial park which has already seen results with the addition of Empire Comfort Systems and Primo Grills.